Incarceron

by Catherine Fisher Narrated by Kim Mai Guest

Overview

Incarceron is a prison unlike any other: Its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness. The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.
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Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can't remember his childhood and believes he came from Outside Incarceron. He's going to escape, even though most inmates don't believe that Outside even exists. And then Finn finds a crystal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.*
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Claudia claims to live Outside-her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she's doomed to an arranged marriage. If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know.*
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Because Incarceron is alive.

Editorial Reviews

Mary Quattlebaum

…nothing, including the final scene, is as it seems in this eerie, elegant fantasy…Intricately plotted and richly imagined, this novel holds the attention as inexorably as Incarceron holds its prisoners.
—The Washington Post

Kirkus Reviews

A far-future thriller combines riveting adventure and masterful world-building with profound undertones. Finn cannot remember anything before awakening in the vast sentient prison called Incarceron, but he is sure that he comes from outside its hellish confines. Claudia has known nothing but luxury as the daughter of Incarceron's Warden; but she dreads her imminent marriage to the caddish prince of the Realms, which are trapped in a static reenactment of a pre-technological past. In parallel narratives, each discovers a chance of escape in matching crystal keys. Their separate quests gradually intertwine with increasing suspense, cresting in a series of shocking reversals and revelations. Claudia and Finn and their assorted companions are complex and comprehensible, engaging reader sympathies even as they mislead and betray each other. Elegant prose and precisely chosen details deftly construct two very different worlds, hinting at layers beneath the glimpses the tale permits; attentive readers will hear echoes of classic tales, resonant with implications about the meaning of stories, of faith and of freedom. Like the finest chocolate, a rich confection of darkness, subtlety and depth, bittersweet and absolutely satisfying. (Science fiction. YA)

Wall Street Journal

This book is a thriller of the highest order; Fisher could give the show "24" a run for its money with her twists and messed up characters...putting it down took a serious act of will.

Booklist

[B]reathless pacing, an intelligent storyline, and superb detail...With some well-timed shocking twists and a killer ending, this is a must have.

Horn Book

Fisher's dystopic future...is brilliantly realized..reader attention never flags through this elegant, gritty, often surprising novel.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169181869
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/09/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

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